Jesus takes the initiative with us with his grace

Why did the religious people of Jesus’ day hate him so much? They criticized him. They threatened him. Several times they plotted to kill him. Finally they managed to have him crucified. Why?

To understand this we have to understand something about the times. From the time they were born the religious people of that day were taught certain things. They believed there were clean people and there were unclean ones. There were clean foods and there were unclean foods. There were clean cities and unclean cities. There were even clean fabrics and unclean fabrics.

They believed what you had to do to please God was associated with the clean things and avoid the unclean ones.

Lepers, for example, were unclean. Tax collectors were unclean. So were the blind, the crippled, the mentally ill, prostitutes, the Gentiles. These unclean people were never allowed to worship in the Temple. If you wanted to remain clean in the eyes of God, they believed, you stayed away from all of these unclean things. Everyone knew if you had anything to do with the unclean you became unclean.

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Jerusalem was the holy city. It was OK to go there. Samaria was an unclean city. You avoided it. It was OK to eat lamb but not pork. We wonder how they could have believed such things, but be honest. Had we been taught these things from birth we probably would have believed them.

Then Jesus comes along claiming to be a rabbi, a teacher, a prophet and finally God himself. If those claims were not enough, Jesus constantly and flagrantly ignored these sacred customs of the religious. They hated him for this. How could he be anything if he did not obey God’s laws?

For example, one day he allowed a leper to come to him. The leper knelt and begged. “If you want to, you can make me well again.” The man moved Jesus. He touched the man and said, “I want to. Be healed.” The man was made whole.

The religious people were shocked. They failed to see the majesty of the healing. All they saw was that Jesus had broken several of their laws. One, lepers had to stay at least 15 paces away from clean people. Two, you never, never touched an unclean person. Three, you never talked with them. What is wrong with this Jesus? Doesn’t he understand the laws?

Another day Jesus was walking up the beach and he saw Levi sitting at his tax collection booth. “Come with me,” Jesus said to him. “Come and be my disciple,” Levi jumped to his feet and went with Jesus. That night Levi invited his fellow tax collectors and other notorious sinners to be his dinner guests so they could meet Jesus.

When the religious leaders saw Jesus eating with these unclean men they complained to his disciples. “How can he stand it? Eating with such scum?” One of the main reasons they hated Jesus is that he refused to conform to their beliefs.

See the difference between how Jesus thought and the religious leaders thought? Jesus did not say to the leper or to the tax collector, “Change your ways, repent, and become better people then you can join me.” He seemed to say to them, “I will join you, and then you will become better people.” He says the same thing to us today.

What does all this mean to us? The people of that day thought you remained good by separating yourself from the unclean. Things that were unclean could defile you if you associated with them. Do we still believe that? How about associating with the poor, the homeless, those with AIDS?

Jesus is telling us the age of grace has drawn near. He didn’t try to determine if the leper was worthy of his healing. Jesus blessed him with his grace just as he was. We receive Jesus’ grace in ways we do not expect or deserve. We are expected to offer his grace to others who don’t expect or deserve it either.

Question of the week: What ominous winged creature is described as unclean in the Law? Last week’s question: What woman was described by Paul as “our sister and a servant of the church” Answer: Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2

Robert Lind, Somerset, is a retired newspaper editor and publisher. He may be reached through this newspaper or at rrlind@mac.com